[1.12.3+] RealChute Parachute Systems v1.4.9.5 | 20/10/24

[stupid_chris]

I've already been working on RealChute2 a lot lately, wasn't a big step to switch for a second to recompile RC1  And for the UI scale thing, that's mostly for me as I play on a 4k monitor at 1.6 UI scale and I was getting tired of having to squint to see what was displayed in the UI haha.

[kananesgi]

On 6/19/2021 at 1:09 AM, stupid_chris said:

@kananesgi while the fact that RealChute 1 indeed cannot do what you asked about, RealChute 2 however...
https://imgur.com/a/g4F4cLv

Sweet! That looks even better than the stock function I've seen (never tried it myself, as RC is one of my "can't live without" mods).

Any idea if RC2 will be backward compatible with mods that depend on RC1? Specifically I'm thinking of the Inline Ballutes mod. I use that extensively and it requires RC.

Edited June 25, 2021 by kananesgi

[stupid_chris]

3 hours ago, kananesgi said:

Sweet! That looks even better than the stock function I've seen (never tried it myself, as RC is one of my "can't live without" mods).

Any idea if RC2 will be backward compatible with mods that depend on RC1? Specifically I'm thinking of the Inline Ballutes mod. I use that extensively and it requires RC.

It won't be out of the box backwards compatible, the module is very different, but it will likely take about five minutes of config editing to make the old parts work with the new module.
Dynamic parachute deflection however requires some knowledge of the geometry and will demand a slight modification at the part level to work with this.

[MR L A]

Hi, 

just an observation/question about intended behaviour

I only use RealChute to give the stock chutes much much much nicer chutes and an extra dose of realism - i ignore the custom parts because I only use stock parts in builds (I’m one of those annoying semi-purists lol). 

Anyway, I designed a craft years ago where the last stage (post re-entry burn) simply separated a command pod from the fuel tanks and armed the parachute, meaning the next time I touched the controls was to click the recover button a few minutes later. 
 

With the mod installed, I’ve found this approach no longer works, unfortunately. I’m having to arm the parachute manually despite it being part of the staging PLUS it’s deploying unsafely very high in the atmosphere which of course leads to a failure and kerbal death - bizarrely, post failure I cannot deploy one of the spare chutes or repack the chute.

I’ll check what I’m doing again tomorrow and report back after some testing (gone 1am and I’m tired lol) - so don’t consider this a support request just yet, more an anecdote

but I must say, thank you for the mod (stock chutes look so bad) and I’m very excited for whatever RealChutes2 brings!

[stupid_chris]

@MR L A there's a couple of things that could be going wrong here, but it's not clear what right now. Is your parachute shielded within an airstream? Are you staging or actually arming the parachute? How high are you when you do that? What are your deployment settings?

[MR L A]

@stupid_chris Hi

So I'm using the Mk16-xl chute - place it on top of the mk 1-3 command pod, clip it just inside the pod, whack a docking port on top of that, so the chute is hidden inside (how I wish there was a stock chute docking collar). Anyway, this config works in stock AND at low altitude WITH the mod, I've done a few abort tests at various altitudes and they all worked absolutely perfectly

For the specific scenario I mentioned - craft is at 500km circular orbit, perform deorbit burn until PE = 0km, then press stage which separates the pod from the fuel tanks and engines and has the parachute in the same stage. At this point I get the message saying deployment failed cus in space (slightly annoying as this staging technique works in stock and means I can do something else for a few minutes).  Now I manually click the 'arm chute' option (I'm testing this as im typing), currently 66km high with the option to disarm the chute, waiting to see what happens.

I've just noticed that the Predeployment setting is set to Pressure of 0.01atm, I'm not sure, but that seems to suggest it will attempt to deploy very high up when I'm still going rather fast... yep, deployed at 23km whilst travelling at over 1200m/s lol.

I'll change to Altitude and see if that fixes my issue... annnnd yes it did

So my bad, basically a user-setting error

Though it would be nice if the staging option was changed back to arm, rather than deploy.. maybe in RC2?  Changed setting in menu

Thanks for your time!

Edit: Oh, just discovered that I can't change chute settings in VAB when I right click on the part. Is that normal? I'm an idiot  Always helps to read the instructions first

Thanks again!

Edited June 27, 2021 by MR L A

[stupid_chris]

8 hours ago, MR L A said:

So I'm using the Mk16-xl chute - place it on top of the mk 1-3 command pod, clip it just inside the pod, whack a docking port on top of that, so the chute is hidden inside (how I wish there was a stock chute docking collar). 

You should really think about using the RealChute stack chute It's made especially for this kind of scenario, and you can even have it bundle a drogue and a main parachute in the same case.

8 hours ago, MR L A said:

At this point I get the message saying deployment failed cus in space (slightly annoying as this staging technique works in stock and means I can do something else for a few minutes).

Though it would be nice if the staging option was changed back to arm, rather than deploy.. maybe in RC2?  Changed setting in menu

Exactly, this behaviour can be switched in the settings menu. RC2 drops the "deploy" concept and only uses "arm".

8 hours ago, MR L A said:

I've just noticed that the Predeployment setting is set to Pressure of 0.01atm, I'm not sure, but that seems to suggest it will attempt to deploy very high up when I'm still going rather fast... yep, deployed at 23km whilst travelling at over 1200m/s lol.

I'll change to Altitude and see if that fixes my issue... annnnd yes it did

0.01atm was the default setting back when RealChute was made, this may have changed now. RealChute uses an altitude trigger on the custom chutes by default since that makes much more sense.

8 hours ago, MR L A said:

Edit: Oh, just discovered that I can't change chute settings in VAB when I right click on the part. Is that normal? I'm an idiot  Always helps to read the instructions first

You can use the action groups menu to completely customize the parachutes. This also allows you to change the diameter so you do not have to spam multiple parachutes on larger crafts.

Edited June 27, 2021 by stupid_chris

[Capt. Hunt]

19 minutes ago, stupid_chris said:

You can use the action groups menu to completely customize the parachutes. This also allows you to change the diameter so you do not have to spam multiple parachutes on larger crafts.

In fact, IIRC, just opening the menu and saving the configuration will automatically configure the chute to the correct size for the craft's mass (unless it is over the maximum limit).

[stupid_chris]

10 minutes ago, Capt. Hunt said:

In fact, IIRC, just opening the menu and saving the configuration will automatically configure the chute to the correct size for the craft's mass (unless it is over the maximum limit).

Yes, but you probably do want to make sure you've removed all extra parts first to not account for too much mass.

[kananesgi]

16 hours ago, stupid_chris said:

Yes, but you probably do want to make sure you've removed all extra parts first to not account for too much mass.

I think this is an issue I keep doing. Almost every time I set the chutes up, it gives the warning that they are at max and not enough, but I know they are. This would be because I'm setting them up as a last step usually and it's calculating the mass of the entire launch vehicle instead of just the reentry vehicle. 

I always set deployment to altitude and pre-employment to about 5000, with full deployment at the default 700. I've found these settings typically guarantee that the craft is slow enough for the chutes and cuts down on the dead time waiting for the capsule to float down while still giving a decent margin of error above the ground.

How do you set up a drogue and main in the inline chute part? I've wanted to do this, but the big cone is the only part I've found that lets me setup more than one chute. I've done it with that part, but it doesn't fit well on most of my craft, and often seems to screw up somewhere and looses the drogue chute (programmed for drogue and main, but then had two mains in flight). I'm still on ksp 1.8, so maybe that has something to do with it. 

[stupid_chris]

5 hours ago, kananesgi said:

I think this is an issue I keep doing. Almost every time I set the chutes up, it gives the warning that they are at max and not enough, but I know they are. This would be because I'm setting them up as a last step usually and it's calculating the mass of the entire launch vehicle instead of just the reentry vehicle. 

That's fine to do it that way, just detach all the parts that won't land, apply the settings, then detach them. Otherwise, it assumes the whole craft lands and you are carrying way too large and heavy a chute.

5 hours ago, kananesgi said:

IHow do you set up a drogue and main in the inline chute part? I've wanted to do this, but the big cone is the only part I've found that lets me setup more than one chute. I've done it with that part, but it doesn't fit well on most of my craft, and often seems to screw up somewhere and looses the drogue chute (programmed for drogue and main, but then had two mains in flight). I'm still on ksp 1.8, so maybe that has something to do with it. 

Just use the combo preset.

[kananesgi]

Combo preset? Don't know about that. I haven't explored the RC options real deep yet, though. Only thing I've seen "combo" in was the big combo cone, which is too big for my applications usually. When I get off work in a few hours I'll see if I can figure it out. 

[Brigadier]

5 hours ago, kananesgi said:

I think this is an issue I keep doing. Almost every time I set the chutes up, it gives the warning that they are at max and not enough, but I know they are. This would be because I'm setting them up as a last step usually and it's calculating the mass of the entire launch vehicle instead of just the reentry vehicle.

@stupid_chrissuggestion is perfect when you are attaching chutes to a reentry vehicle and you can remove all of the parts that aren't going to reenter in the VAB editor.  For other items, such as early stage boosters that I want to recover, I just total the mass of the parts (often a nose cone, empty fuel tank(s) and engine for example) and manually enter that mass in the RC action group dialog when determining the chute configuration.  This would work for a reentry vehicle, too, but isn't as simple or error-free as his method.

[Warro]

On 6/27/2021 at 2:49 PM, MR L A said:

*skipped*
For the specific scenario I mentioned - craft is at 500km circular orbit, perform deorbit burn until PE = 0km
*skipped more*

I guess that's a bit wrong and dangerous technique - if you  set Pe somewhere between 20-30 Km - the craft will not return back to orbit even if it is returning from the Mun, not 500 Km Ap, but it will loose speed pretty high to open chutes in totally safe conditions. With lower Pe the trajectory may become too steep, leaving you with very small safe window to open chutes or even without safe spot at all and you will perform lithobraking at high speed.

[stupid_chris]

5 hours ago, kananesgi said:

Combo preset? Don't know about that. I haven't explored the RC options real deep yet, though. Only thing I've seen "combo" in was the big combo cone, which is too big for my applications usually. When I get off work in a few hours I'll see if I can figure it out. 

There's a preset selection at the top of the action groups menu. I never change anything in the actual menu myself 95% of the time, there are presets for this exact reason.

[kananesgi]

Yep, found it last night. I'd looked it it a long time ago, didn't realize the inline had double and combo options (I'd only looked at the mk16 chute before). Cool that the presets actually adjust the size of the part, gonna start using this a lot more in the future. 

[mateusviccari]

Can someone help me configure a drogue chute to slow down on mars (RSS)?

I added a mk16 parachute, set it to drogue, changed the material to kevlar, pre-deployment altitude = 15000, deployment altitude = 2500. Lander mass is about 300Kg. Coming from a low mars orbit, the chute icon never turns from red to yellow before I reach about 9Km at about 1400m/s. If I try to deploy it, doesn't matter how long after it urns yellow, it always gets torn out by aerodynamic forces. What am I doing wrong?

[stupid_chris]

15 hours ago, mateusviccari said:

Can someone help me configure a drogue chute to slow down on mars (RSS)?

I added a mk16 parachute, set it to drogue, changed the material to kevlar, pre-deployment altitude = 15000, deployment altitude = 2500. Lander mass is about 300Kg. Coming from a low mars orbit, the chute icon never turns from red to yellow before I reach about 9Km at about 1400m/s. If I try to deploy it, doesn't matter how long after it urns yellow, it always gets torn out by aerodynamic forces. What am I doing wrong?

You probably want to ask such questions in either the RSS help threads or the RSS/RO Discord.

[serg1983]

parachutes in FASA do not work, please help

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by serg1983

[stupid_chris]

2 hours ago, serg1983 said:

parachutes in FASA do not work, please help

 

You're gonna have to either make an MM patch for them or ask the author.

[Maelin]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:49 PM, stupid_chris said:

It won't be out of the box backwards compatible, the module is very different, but it will likely take about five minutes of config editing to make the old parts work with the new module.
Dynamic parachute deflection however requires some knowledge of the geometry and will demand a slight modification at the part level to work with this.

Opinions sought! I've fired KSP up for the first time in a year and a half and I'm missing that RealChutes goodness, but I see here that the upcoming version 2 won't be backwards compatible... should I put up with the inferior stock chutes and just wait for v2, or go with the old version now and bite the bullet on having to muck around to fix things when the new version arrives?

[stupid_chris]

7 hours ago, Maelin said:

Opinions sought! I've fired KSP up for the first time in a year and a half and I'm missing that RealChutes goodness, but I see here that the upcoming version 2 won't be backwards compatible... should I put up with the inferior stock chutes and just wait for v2, or go with the old version now and bite the bullet on having to muck around to fix things when the new version arrives?

Us RealChute1, RC2 is not right around the corner and I'm hoping to get a save upgrading tool working for the release anyway.

[Dodge]

Having the following error when using with Kerbal Construction Time and Scrapyard, after I recovered the ship I attempted to edit the ship from KCT UI, the parachute was not recognized and thus became a new part, checked the logs, the following error appeared:

Related error:

[ERR 13:40:53.508] Module ProceduralChute threw during OnStart: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at RealChute.ProceduralChute.OnStart (PartModule+StartState state) [0x005b0] in <aa2d15a844824520a0c77b7f968d6700>:0 
  at Part.ModulesOnStart () [0x00120] in <cd473063d3a2482f8d93d388d0c95035>:0 

Full log: KSP.log and Player.log

I saw some MM patch for RealChute in KCT, so I assume the parachute should be properly "reset", but the issue seems to be caused by this ProceduralParachute.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Dodge

[stupid_chris]

On 9/1/2021 at 4:51 PM, Dodge said:

Having the following error when using with Kerbal Construction Time and Scrapyard, after I recovered the ship I attempted to edit the ship from KCT UI, the parachute was not recognized and thus became a new part, checked the logs, the following error appeared:

Related error:

[ERR 13:40:53.508] Module ProceduralChute threw during OnStart: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at RealChute.ProceduralChute.OnStart (PartModule+StartState state) [0x005b0] in <aa2d15a844824520a0c77b7f968d6700>:0 
  at Part.ModulesOnStart () [0x00120] in <cd473063d3a2482f8d93d388d0c95035>:0 

Full log: KSP.log and Player.log

I saw some MM patch for RealChute in KCT, so I assume the parachute should be properly "reset", but the issue seems to be caused by this ProceduralParachute.

 

ProceduralChute is a part of RealChute. This is an issue that is in the hands of KCT, I do not handle these interactions.

[Dodge]

Quote

ProceduralChute is a part of RealChute. This is an issue that is in the hands of KCT, I do not handle these interactions.

I see, just to clarify a little: the issue happens regardless of KCT's existence or not, it is  just that I think this is still related to KCT/Srapyard having issue recognizing the part. I wonder this could manifest in many other ways as well.